The present disclosure relates generally to medical devices, and, more particularly, to systems and methods for monitoring blood pressure of a patient.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the field of medicine, doctors often desire to monitor certain physiological characteristics of their patients. In some cases, clinicians may wish to monitor a patient's blood pressure. Blood pressure may be assessed using a wide variety of monitoring devices. For example, blood pressure may be monitored non-invasively via a sphygmomanometer (e.g., a blood pressure cuff). In some circumstances, blood pressure may be continuously, non-invasively monitored using multiple pulse oximetry sensors located at multiple body sites on a patient and calculating a differential pulse transit time (DPTT). However, blood pressure signals obtained by a blood pressure cuff or based on DPTT may be adversely affected by certain physiological events (e.g., changes in vasotone), and thus may not always accurately reflect the patient's blood pressure. Additionally, such blood pressure signals may be subject to other sources of error, such as improper placement of the blood pressure monitoring device or errors in processing the received data. Therefore, systems and methods for monitoring a patient's blood pressure and for determining a confidence level related to a blood pressure signal are provided herein.